Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Mobile Health News Weekly – Week of September 1, 2013

The Mobile Health News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to mobile health that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

According to the latest projections from ABI Research, the total market for wearable wireless devices in sports and healthcare will grow to 170 million units by 2017. When you consider the explosive growth enjoyed by companies already entrenched in this emerging market, it isn’t difficult to imagine how such lofty projections will be reached, or even exceeded. Read Original Content

A study published in July found many medical mobile apps don't encrypt the sensitive or embarrassing data consumers input about their health. Apps frequently share that data with advertisers and other third parties without users' knowledge. Of the free apps reviewed in the study, less than half posted privacy policies, and only half of those that did described the apps' technical processes accurately. Read Original Content

While the industry has been seemingly reluctant to use electronic health record (EHR) software, and reimbursement and regulatory hurdles continue to hinder telemedicine adoption, healthcare has by and large embraced mobile health — in theory if not necessarily in practice. One reason, of course, is ever-rising smartphone use among both patients and physicians. Read Original Content

While social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies add a new dimension to your model, to fully maximize their value consider the sum is greater than its parts. The formula for the Future of Work is called SMAC - social, mobile, analytics and cloud on one integrated stack, where each function enables another to maximize their effect. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Cognizant.

The Middle East and North Africa should take advantage of its mobile penetration and entrepreneurial activity to improve its healthcare systems. The need and opportunity for innovation in the region's healthcare space is obvious. A 2012 Booz and Co. study of online trends in MENA countries identified healthcare as the sector most needing an information and communication technology upgrade. The region has approximately 18 qualified physicians per 10,000 people compared to the 27 in England and the U.S. Read Original Content

The Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT has kicked off a behavioral mobile health app challenge designed empower patients to manage their mental health and/or substance use disorders. Approximately 20 percent of adults and 13 percent of adolescents suffer from mental disorders each year and 8.7 percent of Americans aged 12 and older experience substance dependence or abuse each year. Read Original Content

Health insurers have further to go in using mobile tools and social media to develop a community with consumers, according to EveryMove, a health rewards-based marketing and incentives company. EveryMove has released its EveryMove 100 Health Insurance Index, which ranked the top 100 health insurance companies in the United States on how they engage with consumers to manage their own health. Read Original Content

According to a recent survey from Black Book Rankings, demand for mobile EHR, or electronic health record, solutions is extremely high, with 83 percent of surveyed physicians stating that they would use mobile EHR apps if more options became available. The survey found only eight percent of physicians currently use a mobile device for EHR functions, indicating significant market potential for new mobile EHR apps. Read Orignal Content
Research conducted for the Financial Times by Evidon, a web analytic and privacy group, has found that the top 20 most popular health and wellness apps forward user data to “a web of nearly 70 companies”. Read Orignal Content

Applying a health systems "lens" to the evaluation of mobile healthcare initiatives, a recent article in the peer-reviewed journal Global Health: Science and Practice argues mHealth should be integrated into existing health system functions, rather than as stand-alone solutions. Read Original Content

A Washington D.C. law firm known for its work with mHealth companies is asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to "adopt significant fundamental changes to keep pace with medicine and technology." The request is part of a 12-page white paper submitted to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology by Bradley Merrill Thompson, the legal counsel for the mHealth Regulatory Coalition. Read Original Content

A new study by the Mayo Clinic, published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, shows the $99 mHealth tracker could be a cost-effective and useful tool to report the post-surgical physical activities of elderly cardiac patients. The study shows the more active patients are after their surgery, the more likely they will be discharged home instead of to an expensive rehabilitation facility or nursing home. Read Original Content

Mobile healthcare applications that run on mobile phones could be held up in African countries owing to a lack of regulations governing the privacy of patient data, a report by TrustLaw Connect has found. The report finds most African countries have not implemented comprehensive data privacy laws like those existing in Europe, and have also not enacted laws that provide broad protection for health data such as measures passed in the United States. Read Original Content

Businesses with large workforces and multiple locations are finding innovative uses for mHealth. The latest tool comes from UL Workplace Health and Safety, which has unveiled a mobile app that enables occupational health management executives to schedule, conduct and track employee vaccinations in the field. Read Original Content

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.